On July 28 this year, the Innovation and Research Management Council (IRMC) was set up, which will be composed of ministers from two ministries – the Ministry of Economics (ME) and the Ministry of Education and Science (MES), as well as the directors of two institutions – the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (IDAL) and the Latvian Council of Science (LCS).
In order to promote the development of the Latvian economy and the increase in export volumes, the ability of companies to create innovation and new products is important. This requires interaction between entrepreneurs, scientists and the public sector and the ability to agree on the implementation of new and joint projects, as well as the intensity and direction of the necessary support. I see that the Innovation and Research Management Council is an important step towards smarter research, development and innovation, as well as the governance of the Smart Specialisation Strategy, ensuring the timely circulation of information and closer cooperation between the responsible public authorities,” the Minister of Economics Ilze Indriksone emphasises.
The newly established Council has a collegial and consultative format of strategic management level for the research, development and innovation policy and the Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3*) established to improve the institutional governance of research, development and innovation policy and monitor the implementation of RIS3 in Latvia.
Our joint objective is to promote innovation and doing so requires good governance of innovation policy, which takes note of sectoral and scientific barriers to innovation and helps to overcome them. We, as the Ministry of Education and Science, are pleased with the establishment of the new format of cooperation and we believe that it will become another instrument for supporting our scientists and entrepreneurs in creating new products. The Council will also provide an opportunity to cooperate more closely with colleagues from the Ministry of Economics, the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia and the Latvian Council of Science, because it is possible to find the best solutions to help our scientists and entrepreneurs,” the Minister of Education and Science Anita Muižniece says.
The purpose of the Council’s activities is to monitor the implementation and management of research, development and innovation policies and RIS3, based on regular monitoring, to improve the circulation of information and to develop closer cooperation between the main public sector institutions responsible for the development, implementation, supervision and joint monitoring of research, development and innovation policies, as well as RIS3 in Latvia.
In order to significantly increase the efficiency and competitiveness of Latvian companies in global markets, it is necessary to stimulate the development of knowledge-based industries and the introduction of innovation. If today most of the patents developed by Latvian scientists are sold abroad, then in the future we want them to serve the development of our economy. The main task of the Innovation and Research Management Council will be to pool resources of entrepreneurs and scientific institutions in order to increase more rapidly the number of businesses working in a smart specialisation area and to jointly start programmes at European Union level. We also want to double our R&D investment of our companies over the next three to four years in order to help achieve the objective set out in the various policy planning documents to increase total R&D spending to 1.5% of GDP,” the Director of IDAL Kaspars Rožkalns emphasises.
“Science contributes significantly to the creation of high value added products, thereby contributing to the development of a knowledge-intensive economy. High-level studies are being carried out in Latvia, including with the potential for commercial use, so it is important to establish close cooperation and coordination between science and business. The Innovation and Research Management Council will be an important instrument for ensuring the continuity of such research, not only by facilitating the transfer of knowledge generated within them to entrepreneurs, but also by attracting investment for the developments of fields of science,” the Director of LCS Lauma Muižniece indicates.
The new IRMC cooperation model is expected to improve cooperation between public sector institutions directly responsible for development and innovation policy development and implementation, ensure a more complete strategic management and coordinated lead supervision of RIS3 implementation, and provide an opportunity to engage more actively and govern RIS3 deployment and monitoring.